Hybrid Fuzzy-ART based K-Means Clustering Methodology to Cellular Manufacturing Using Operational Time

This paper presents a new hybrid Fuzzy-ART based K-Means Clustering technique to solve the part machine grouping problem in cellular manufacturing systems considering operational time. The performance of the proposed technique is tested with problems from open literature and the results are compared to the existing clustering models such as simple Kmeans algorithm and modified ART1 algorithm using an efficient modified performance measure known as modified grouping efficiency (MGE) as found in the literature. The results support the better performance of the proposed algorithm. The Novelty of this study lies in the simple and efficient methodology to produce quick solutions for shop floor managers with least computational efforts and time. Keywords— cell formation, group technology, cellular manufacturing, ratio data, artificial neural network, fuzzy adaptive resonance theory, k-means clustering.